Volume 7, issue 2 (winter 1999-2000)
Byz-Niz
Internet
The Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Philology at the University of Göttingen set up a mailinglist for Byzantine Philology as a forum for all areas of research in Byzantine Philology. The mailinglist shall provide the opportunity to discuss questions and problems. Research papers and reports, short reviews of recently publisheed books as well as announcements of conferences are also welcome. Students of Byzantine Philology are encouraged to take part in the mailinglist. The mailinglist is unmoderated. If you want to subscribe to the list, send an email to: [email protected] containing only the following line:
subscribe Byzantinistik [first name] [last name]
The e-mail should not contain a subject or further lines such as signatures or address lines.
Kloosters, kerken/Monasteries, churches
Byzantine churches and monasteries a casualty of Kosovo
From/uit: AABS 39, Nov. 1999
The following item has been supplied by the Serbian community in New South Wales. For further information contact Aleksander Pavkovic ([email protected]) or Mrs Ranka Rajanovic ([email protected]). More detailed information is available through the following Web Sites:
http://www.decani.yunet.com/destruction.html
The province of Kosovo is home to some 1600 Byzantine medieval monuments, and it represents one of the highest concentrations of cultural and historical monuments in the world. Out of 1400 churches and monasteries, many date back to the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. Most of these monuments and holy shrines survived the wars fought in the region over past centuries, but are now in danger of falling victim to the current geopolitical conflict. Among the endangered medieval monasteries in Kosovo are even ones of exceptional cultural significance:
- Decani Monastery, nominated for the World Heritage List, built in 1327, its frescoes almost completely preserved and containing over 1000 individual figures and scenes representing the largest existing sources of data on Byzantine iconography. The Decani Treasury is the richest in Serbia with about 60 icons from the fourteenth century.
- Gracanica Monastery, nominated for the World Heritage List, built in the second decade of the fourteenth century, belongs among the finest architectural achievements of the epoch, with paintings completed in 1321, and with an outstanding collection of icons from the fourteenth century.
- The Patriarchate of Pecs, the complex of the Pecs' churches, built in the third part of the thirteenth century, with frescoes painted from 1260 onwards. An entire history of the styles of medieval wall painting can be seen on the walls of the Pecs churches.
- Ljeviska Mother of God, a five-dome church built in 1306, with very damaged paintings which are considered among the most successful fresco assemblages from the time of the Byzantine dynasty of the Palaeologus, painted by master painter Astrapa from Salonika around 1310-1313, with the famous fresco of Virgin with Christ, fourteenth century.
Between June and September 1999 over seventy monasteries and churches have been plundered and destroyed as a result of retaliatory attacks, and many more damaged. Among them are:
- The Medieval Holy Trinity Monastery, Musutiste, fourteenth century, looted, and completely destroyed.
- St. Cosma and Damian Monastery, Zociste, fourteenth century, looted, vandalized, and recently destroyed.
- The Dormition of Mother of God church in Musutiste, 1315, completely destroyed.
- St. Archangel Gabriel's Monastery, Binac, fourteenth century, almost completely destroyed.
- Devic Monastery of St. Joanikije, from 1440, looted and vandalized.
- Holy Archangels Monastery, fourteenth century, in Gornje Nerodimlje, destroyed.
Tentoonstellingen/Exhibitions
Allard Pierson Museum: Muziek in het klassieke Griekenland.
"Het Leven van Jesus", Russische ikonen van Wasili Wasin, t/m 18 maart in de expositieruimte van de kaarsenmakerij van de Abdij van Egmond, Vennewatersweg 27, 1935 AR Egmond-Binnen.
Boeken/Books
Karel C. Innemée, Robin Lutz. Koptische kloosters. Gods
levende dodenMooi fotoboek met teksten die de geschiedenis van het
Koptische monnikendom beschrijven van he begin tot het heden.
Baarn: De Fontein,1999. 102 pp., ill., lit. opg.
ISBN 90-261-1381-1.
Hans Hollerweger, English transl. and inroduction: Andrew
Palmer, introduction: Sebastian Brock, Turkish tanslation: Sevil
Gülçer. Tur Abdin. Lebendiges Kulturerbe. Living
Cultural Heritage. Canli Kültür Mirasi. 1999. 367 pp.,
ill., reg.
ISBN 3-9501039-0-2
Dit kleurrijk geïllustreerde boek is het eerste fotoboek over
Tur Abdin, de bergstreek waar het Syrische Christendom zeer vroeg
al tot bloei kwam, en waar het nog steeds, zij het onder zeer
moeilijke omstandigheden, voortleeft. Jammer dat er geen
detailkaart van de streek in staat.
Te bestellen via:
Freunde des Tur Abdin
Bethlehemstrasse 20,
A-4020 Linz, Oostenrijk
fax +43 732 773578
email
[email protected]
Conferences
Travel in the Byzantine World: the 34th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies. 1-4 April 2000, The University of Birmingham, UK.
XXe Congres International des Etudes Byzantines, Paris (Sorbonne and Collège de France). Proposed plenary sessions and round tables: Recherches sur le droit byzantin: un bilan; Les Occidentaux dans les villes de province de l'Empire byzantin; Les villages dans l'Empire byzantine, Ve-XIVe s.; Permanences et changements dans l'occupation du sol: densites, modalites et extension/regression; Byzance entre Occident chrétien et monde musulman. Les relations artistiques; La peripherie dans le temps et l'espace; Alterite religieuse et identite culturelle: les chrétientés orientales non grecques; Reliques de la Passion (the indirect relics of Christ); La petition à Byzance; l'Italie byzantine; Lire et ecrire a Byzance; La Lettre diplomatique; Philosophie et sciences a Byzance; Theologiens et méthodes theologiques a Byzance; Byzance et son histoire en l'an 2000.
Date: 19-25 August 2000.
Ontvangen/Received
Dionysius xvii, dec. 1999 (Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada) ISSN 0705-1085.
Nieuwsbrief van de Interdisciplinaire Werkgroep voor de Studie van het Oosters Christendom, vii, december 1999 (Nijmegen, Leiden).
Newsletter. Society for Armenian Studies, vol. xxiii, no. 3 (54), fall 1999.
Salsus Books, catalogue 35: Liturgy, Biblical Studies, Theology, Church History, etc. (http://www.books93.freeserve.co.uk)
Byzantinologe wint De la Courtprijs
De Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (KNAW) heeft de De la Courtprijs 1999 toegekend aan dr. Krijnie N. Ciggaar voor haar studie Western Travellers to Constantinople. The West and Byzantium 962-1204. De De la Courtprijs is bestemd voor wetenschappelijk werk op het gebied van alfa- en gammawetenschappen dat onbezoldigd is verricht.